1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for transplanting hair grafts, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for non-invasively implanting hair grafts into pre-made wounds.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The transplantation of hair grafts into a human scalp is well understood. The present state of the art calls for excising a hair-rich area of the scalp, dissecting the excised scalp segment to obtain individual hair grafts for implantation, creating an implantation site in a bald or thinning area of the scalp by making wounds with a cutting instrument, and then implanting individual grafts into the prepared implantation sites after bleeding has ceased.
Current techniques for hair transplantation limits the transplant process to creating follicular units that contain one to four hairs bunched together as they are found in a normal human scalp and using these follicular units as hair grafts.
Two general classes of instruments are used by surgeons today to implant hair grafts. One class of instruments is designed to place hair grafts into pre-made wounds. Typically, one of the commercially available hair graft implantation instruments include a hollow needle within a sheath that is alternately moved between an extended position in which the needle extends beyond the sheath and a retracted position in which the needle is retracted within the sheath. In a second class of instruments, a single instrument makes a scalp wound and implants a hair graft into the freshly made wound in a rapid sequence of mechanical actions. These “percutaneous” instruments (through the intact skin), can be used to place hair grafts into pre-made sites as well.
These conventional instruments have several disadvantages. Usually, the instrument has very delicate and sensitive controls and requires fine adjustments to position the needle tip to capture a graft. The graft may then be held and oriented in a variety of directions. When the instrument advances the graft into the scalp, the mechanics of these instruments often dislodge either the graft being implanted or the grafts previously implanted in the general vicinity of the implant site before the placement of the graft is complete.
Conventional devices insert a part of the transplant apparatus into the scalp wound. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,807, the graft is encased inside a needle which then is in turn inserted inside the scalp (i.e., both the needle and the graft are physically located inside the scalp during insertion.) In U.S. Pat. No. 6,461,369, a needle is inserted into the scalp with the graft attached to its distal end prior to the quick withdrawal of the needle. Thus, even if the graft is placed at the desired location within the wound, the graft can extrude from the wound because bleeding in the wound is reactivated by either the invasive needle penetrating into the wound as the instrument is manipulated, or other mechanical forces related to the needle going into and out of the wound.
Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus for transplanting hair grafts that is simple and substantially non-invasive, allowing for complete hair graft implantation without the dislodging of surrounding hair grafts.